AMR Corporation t/a American Airlines, USA,

About This Organisation

About this Organisation

AMR Corporation is a commercial aviation business and airline holding company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Formed in 1982, as part of American Airlines's reorganization, its name derives from American Airlines's ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to American Airlines, AMR owns TWA Airlines LLC, (formerly Trans World Airlines) and regional airlines American Eagle Airlines, successor to Simmons Airlines, and Executive Airlines by way of AMR Eagle Holdings Corporation. Wikipedia

American Airlines run a loyalty program (AAdvantage Milestones) whereby members of the program can be given airmiles in exchange for spending money with participating companies.

About this Report

Competitions or appeals seeking submissions of creative works from the public, works such as photos, videos, poems, music, etc., are reviewed by the Bill of Rights campaign. The reviews are to help you decide whether you should participate in the competition or appeal. The only thing you need to understand is that when you create a work (e.g. a photo) the law automatically makes you the sole beneficiary of certain rights over that work (but see note 1 below). These rights are called intellectual property rights.

Rights have a value and you are free to decide what that value is. If a person or organisation would like to use your work to promote something, you have the right to refuse permission, or to set a fee for a specific use and decide how long they may use it. More information about intellectual property rights and their value to you as an individual can be read in our Guide to Rights & Licensing. Listed on the next tab are some competitions or appeals promoted by the above organisation. For each we detail how the organisation's terms and conditions will exploit your rights to their advantage for works you submit to their competition or appeal.

A copy of this report was submitted to the organisation to help them review and change their terms and conditions. We also took the opportunity to invite them to join the Bill of Rights Supporters' Group. This would have enabled them to enjoy the benefits of being a member of a group which supports and respects others' intellectual property rights. Unfortunately the negotiations did not conclude successfully.

The main aims of the Bill of Rights Campaign are to help everyone understand that their intellectual property rights have a value and to encourage competition and appeal organisers to adopt the standards set out in the Bill of Rights for Artists.

Note 1. Rights for works created as an employee are usually owned by your employer.

About Their Competitions/Appeals

How this Organisation's Competitions or Appeals are Listed

How to Use this Tab

Listed below in order of closing date are the competitions or appeals promoted by this organisation that have been reviewed by the Bill of Rights for Artists campaign. To see the review of each competition or appeal just click on its title and a window will open to reveal its details.

The following information is provided for each competition or appeal;

the terms and conditions that impact on your intellectual property rights for any works you submit;

an explanation of how the terms and conditions will affect you and the rights you have in any work you submit to it;

a list of any other organisations sponsoring the competition or appeal;

who you should contact and how to complain to the organisation concerned.

The Big Photo Shoot-Out; closing date 25 Aug 2009

The Big Photo Shoot-Out

Note that the extract from the official rules below are linked to from the home page of the The Big Photo Shoot-Out competition, but the rules actually refer to a contest called "Your Best Shot".

The entry form acts as a User Generated Submission License Agreement ("Terms Agreement") between you and American Airlines concerning your submission(s) containing artwork, audio recordings, copy, ideas, images, music, photography, text, video recordings, written materials and/or other materials ("Submission") for American Airlines’ consideration and possible use in connection with American Airlines AAdvantage® Milestones™ Your Best Shot contest (the "Contest"). For good and valuable consideration, the receipt of which you hereby acknowledge, you agree to the following:

You hereby grant American Airlines the following rights:

An irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free perpetual license to use and exploit the Submission, including, without limitation, the title(s) and each and every element of the Submission, in whole or in part, in any and all manner and media throughout the world; and

The right to use your name, voice, image, likeness and biographical data in connection with both the Submission and the Promotion, including, without limitation, in credits, advertising, publicity, promotional and marketing materials.

You hereby acknowledge and agree that:

American Airlines shall have the right to crop, edit, alter or arrange the Submission in any way it desires in American Airlines’ sole discretion;

American Airlines shall not have any obligation to provide you with any credit when using your Submission, but in the event American Airlines chooses to provide you with credit the size and placement of the credit shall be at American Airlines’ sole discretion;

No confidential or fiduciary relationship exists between you and American Airlines, and that no such relationships have been established by reasons of this Terms Agreement or by reason of my submission to American Airlines.

You shall waive any "droit moral" or "moral rights" that you may have in the Submission;

You will not issue any publicity concerning American Airlines and/or the Promotion;

You are not entitled to any compensation or other payment from American Airlines in connection with the Submission; and

American Airlines has not made any promises or representations to you in order to induce you to provide the Submission

HOW THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS WILL AFFECT YOU

The following notes explain how the above terms and conditions affect your rights in respect of any works you submit to the above competition or appeal.

The terms and conditions require you to waive your moral rights. This means you will not be able to object to how your work is used in future, such as it being altered in a manner you may find derogatory, or if it is used to promote a product or cause you find objectionable. You have also lost your right to be credited as the author of your work.

The terms and conditions do not state you will always be credited when your work is reproduced. One of your most important moral rights is that you should be credited as the author of a work whenever it is reproduced.

The terms and conditions are granting the organiser unlimited use of your work for ever. For non-winning works a usage time limit of 5 years or less should be set with usage limited solely to promoting the competition or appeal. It is permissable to use winning works for ever but only in a permanent winners gallery with the sole purpose of promoting a recurring competition or appeal.

The terms and conditions grant the organiser the right to use your work beyond that needed to promote the competition or appeal. Your work will be used for other purposes. Usage of your work should be restricted solely to promoting the competition or appeal. If the organisation wishes to use your work for any other purpose they should negotiate with you independently of the competition. You should have the right to negotiate an appropriate fee for the specific use they want to make of your work and to set a time limit on such use. You should also have the right to refuse use of your work. For further information on fees and licensing refer to the Introduction to Rights and Licensing.

The above may help you to decide not to submit any works to this competition or appeal. For further guidance please read the Bill of Rights for Artists.

To visit the competition website click the competition title above to submit the free image we have created. Note that the competition link may cease to work at some point after the competition results are announced.

You can help the Bill of Rights campaign by complaining to the organiser urging them to change their terms and conditions. If time is at a premium for you we have prepared a complaint email which you can copy and send to the organiser. Alternatively, or as well as, you can submit the free image we have prepared to register your complaint simply by entering the free image to the contest.

Where a contest automatically displays entrants images on the contest website as they arrive you can use the free image to test the competition and determine if it is stripping metadata. The test results can be submitted to a survey by the Controlled Vocabulary Group.

The Bill of Rights campaign depends on your active support, your help will make a difference.

AAdvantage Milestones; User Submissions; ongoing

AAdvantage Milestones; User Submissions

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This is not a contest. It is simply an appeal to submit photos on the AAdvantageMilestones website where it states "Have a great photo you want to share with the world? We'd love to see it. To get started, just follow the instructions below" AAdvantage is the frequent flyer program of American Airlines.

The terms and conditions, which can be found as a miniscule link at the bottom of the page, detail the rights those who submit images (using their password) grant to American Airlines, Inc. American Airlines are referred to as "American" in the terms and conditions. The terms and conditions are quite extraordinary in the greedy demands they make of the users rights. The user is just invited to make a submission "we'd love to see it" they say. But the user is not referred in the invite to the terms and conditions for User Submissions, only to the privacy policy.

Any material submitted to the Website using your password are collectively referred to as "User Submissions."

1. By providing any User Submissions to the Website, you hereby grant American the following rights:

(a) An irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, fully-paid-up, royalty-free perpetual license under any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, right of privacy and other right in or relating to any User Submission to modify or create derivative works based upon such User Submissions and to use, copy, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce and otherwise exploit such User Submissions and any such modifications or derivative works, including, without limitation, the title(s) and each and every element of the User Submissions or of any such modification or derivative work, in whole or in part, in any and all manner and media (whether now known or hereafter invented or discovered) and for any purpose, including, without limitation, on the Website and in advertising, publicity, promotional and marketing materials;

(b) An irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, fully-paid-up, royalty-free perpetual right to use your name, voice, image, likeness, signature and biographical data in connection with any User Submissions and any promotional activity, including, without limitation, on the Website and in credits, advertising, publicity, promotional and marketing materials; and

(c) An irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, fully-paid-up, royalty-free perpetual right to sublicense or assign or otherwise transfer to any other person or entity any rights granted by you under these Terms and Conditions.

2. You hereby acknowledge and agree that:

(a) American shall have the right to arrange, organize, classify and categorize any User Submissions and any modifications thereof or derivative works based thereon in any way it desires in American's sole discretion;

(b) American shall have the right to publish or display commentary or criticism submitted by other Users regarding or relating to any User Submission in American's sole discretion, and you waive any claims against American based upon any such commentary or criticism, including, without limitation, any claims for defamation;

(c) American shall not have any obligation to provide you with any credit when using any of your User Submissions, but in the event American chooses to provide you with credit the size and placement of the credit shall be at American's sole discretion;

(d) No confidential or fiduciary relationship exists between you and American, and no such relationships have been established by reasons of these Terms and Conditions or by reason of your submission of any User Submissions to American;

(e) To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, you hereby waive any "droit moral" or "moral rights" that you may have in any User Submissions, and, accordingly, you hereby approve any and all uses, public performances, public displays, publications, reproductions and other exploitations of the User Submissions or of any modifications of or derivative works based thereon that American or any successor or transferee thereof or any third party sublicensed or otherwise authorized by American or any successor or transferee thereof, directly or indirectly, may make, and you expressly agree that no such uses, public performances, public displays, publications and other exploitations will or may cause harm to your honor or reputation and that no modification of or derivative works based upon any User Submissions by American or any successor or transferee thereof or by any third party sublicensed or otherwise authorized by American or any successor or transferee thereof, directly or indirectly, will be deemed to constitute a distortion or mutilation of any User Submissions;

- and continues on in similar vein at some length, concluding with -

10. You shall not have the right to assign or otherwise transfer these Terms and Conditions or any of your rights, obligations or duties of performance herein and any such assignment or other transfer shall be null and void unless expressly accepted by American in writing, in its sole discretion. These Terms and Conditions are binding upon and shall inure to the benefit of the respective permitted sublicensees, successors, heirs and permitted assigns of the parties hereto.

HOW THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS WILL AFFECT YOU

The following notes explain how the above terms and conditions affect your rights in respect of any works you submit to the above competition or appeal.

The terms and conditions require you to waive your moral rights. This means you will not be able to object to how your work is used in future, such as it being altered in a manner you may find derogatory, or if it is used to promote a product or cause you find objectionable. You have also lost your right to be credited as the author of your work.

The terms and conditions do not state you will always be credited when your work is reproduced. One of your most important moral rights is that you should be credited as the author of a work whenever it is reproduced.

The terms and conditions are granting the organiser unlimited use of your work for ever.

The terms and conditions grant the organiser the unlimited rights to use your work. For further information on fees and licensing refer to the Introduction to Rights and Licensing.

For the above reasons you should not submit any works to this appeal. For further guidance please read the Bill of Rights for Artists.

To visit the competition website click the competition title above to submit the free image we have created. Note that the competition link may cease to work at some point after the competition results are announced.

You can help the Bill of Rights campaign by complaining to the organiser urging them to change their terms and conditions. If time is at a premium for you we have prepared a complaint email which you can copy and send to the organiser. Alternatively, or as well as, you can submit the free image we have prepared to register your complaint simply by entering the free image to the contest.

Where a contest automatically displays entrants images on the contest website as they arrive you can use the free image to test the competition and determine if it is stripping metadata. The test results can be submitted to a survey by the Controlled Vocabulary Group.

The Bill of Rights campaign depends on your active support, your help will make a difference.

We have written an Organisers Guide to the Bill of Rights to help organisers draft terms and conditions that respect the rights of entrants and at the same time provide legal protection for the organiser.

Any text reproduced in italics in this report has been extracted from a competition or appeal website for the purposes of review.

Organisations who would like to be promoted as a Bill of Rights Supporter and have their competitions promoted on the Rights On List can use this contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

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